The invention relates to a magnetic-tape-cassette apparatus comprising a motor which drives the reel discs via a reel-drive mechanism and which also drives a longitudinally movable servo rod actuating a head support, a switching member and a loading mechanism comprising a lift slide and, coupled thereto, a cassette holder, which are movable between an eject position and an upper play position, in which upper play position the cassette holder can be moved into a lower play position, a loading drive being provided by means of which the loading mechanism is engageable and disengageable and which can be driven by parts of the reel-drive mechanism.
Such a magnetic-tape-cassette apparatus is known from DE 37 19 890 C2 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,336. A reversible motor, which drives the reel discs for the tape spools, also serves for moving a loading mechanism comprising a lift slide and a cassette holder guided therein. The motor transmits the movement to the lift slide via a servo rod. Moreover, it is known from EP 366 191 A2 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 5,331,484 to arrange a control rod on the servo rod, which control rod is connected to a coupling rod. The servo rod, the control rod and the coupling rod influence the displacement of the lift slide along the path of movement of the servo rod.
The lift slide is moved via a coupling member which extends through a deck plate from one side to the other side. To make this possible the deck plate has a longitudinal slot. This slot limits the path of movement of the lift slide because the slot cannot be made arbitrarily long without the stability of the deck plate being affected. With this known apparatus it is therefore difficult to realize an extension of the cassette ejection path.
From DE 38 38 013 A1 which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,105 it is known to drive the loading mechanism by a motor which also drives the reel spindles for the magnetic-tape reels. During the loading operation the drive mechanism is switched from reel drive to loading drive. The drive mechanism is switched over by means of a pivotable actuating plate, which is actuated by a function plate. The problem of extending the ejection path does not exist here because video cassettes have substantially larger dimensions than audio Compact Cassettes and are therefore ejected far enough.